The Sacrifice (1986; Andrei Tarkovsky) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Thursday, January 11, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco and at the PFA in Berkeley. Full disclosure: although the perfectly washed-out colors of Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice have been given a faithful 4K restoration, my viewing experience was […]
Antiporno (2017; Sion Sono) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes More electrifying excess from Sono (Tokyo Tribe), this time a collaboration with Nikkatsu, Japan’s oldest major film studio. Antiporno is part of a series of feature-length throwbacks to Nikkatsu’s 1970s “Roman Porno” output. In these films, directors received total artistic freedom, […]
The Breadwinner (2017; Nora Twomey) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, December 1, at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. The Secret of Kells co-directory Twomey makes her solo feature debut with this animated story of an Afghanistan family barely surviving under […]
LA 92 (2017; Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin) GRADE: A- By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, November 17, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. The best documentary of the year so far, a harrowing, sweeping, intelligent, dynamic and elegantly constructed montage about the Los Angeles riots of 1992. LA […]
God’s Own Country (2017; Francis Lee) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, November 10, at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. Postcard-worthy slow cinema from actor-turned-auteur Lee, a bruising but underwhelming love story set amongst Yorkshire sheep farmers. With his friends […]
Brimstone & Glory (2017; Viktor Jakovleski) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, November 3, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. A color-saturated, visually stimulating, razor-thin documentary about the National Pyrotechnic Festival that takes place in the Mexican municipality of Tultepec, a national center for fireworks production. There […]
